Vancouver Whitecaps FC and FC Dallas meet in the back end of their home-and-home series on Saturday afternoon at BC Place. The teams met a week ago in Texas, FCD getting goals on either side of halftime for a 2-0 victory. The win extended the unbeaten streak to six games for the Western Conference leaders, longest this season in MLS; Whitecaps FC are now winless in five in MLS play, though they won at midweek in their Canadian Championship opener.

FC Dallas took the lead in the 29th minute. David Ferreira swung in a corner kick and unfortunately for the Whitecaps, the ball bounced off defender Brad Rusin’s back for an own goal.

The home side then scored from the run of play in the 50th minute when Blas Pérez re-directed a deflected blast from Kenny Cooper with a diving header that gave Whitecaps FC goalkeeper Joe Cannon no chance.

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC
Vancouver Whitecaps FC saw their winless run extended to five matches with the loss to FC Dallas in Frisco. Whitecaps FC sit in a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference with 8 points from 7 matches.

TEAM NEWS

Whitecaps FC head coach Martin Rennie made three changes to the team that came back for a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake at BC Place. Matt Watson, Erik Hurtado, Tommy Heinemann all came into the team, in place of Daigo Kobayashi, Camilo Sanvezzo and Corey Hertzog.

“We were poor tonight,” Rennie said. “That’s one of the first games this season I could really say that. We’ve been performing well, but tonight wasn’t a good night for us. And on top of that I thought FC Dallas played very well. They’re on a good run and they took advantage of our poor play.”

Whitecaps FC saw their winless streak extended to five matches following back-to-back victories to open the season. They lost for the third time in four games away from BC Place.

“The road concerns – obviously it’s something that we need to work on,” goalkeeper Joe Cannon said. “It’s pretty glaring. But in all honesty, in this league, you just have to make sure you finish strong. For us, we can’t worry about results right now. We have to figure out what the heck has gone wrong with us – why aren’t we getting these results?”

Matt Watson made his first appearance of the season, coming into the midfield and playing 71 minutes. Tommy Heinemann also made his first start of the season, playing the entire match after making two substitute appearances totaling nine minutes.

After a one-match absence, Erik Hurtado also returned to the starting lineup, playing the full 90 minutes in a wide role.

“We get the chance to put it right. We play FC Dallas again next week and we have to put together a much better performance,” said Rennie. “We need to really show up for the game next week. This was a night when not really anybody played well. Hardly anybody could come away saying they had a good performance tonight.”

After starting every match of the league season, Daigo Kobayashi did not make the trip to Dallas. Kenny Miller was also unavailable, in Scotland for the birth of his son while also recovering from a hamstring injury.

“From the first game (last season) we went with almost the same players almost all the way through and I felt, at a certain point, we kind of burnt out,” said Rennie. “At the moment, we’ve not done that. We’ve rotated a lot and we find ourselves in the exact same position as every other team in the Western Conference apart from Dallas and Seattle … without having got to our strongest lineup every week. Hopefully, in a few weeks, we should be a position to do that.”

On Wednesday, Whitecaps FC came back for a 3-2 victory against NASL side FC Edmonton in the first leg of their Canadian Championship semifinal series at Commonwealth Stadium. The return match is May 1 at BC Place. Camilo Sanvezzo converted a penalty in the 83rd minute – his second goal of the game – to pull Vancouver back into a 2-2 draw, then Tom Heinemann scored the winner a minute from time.

FC DALLAS
FC Dallas extended their undefeated run to six games with the victory against Vancouver in Frisco. FCD sit atop the Western Conference with 19 points from 8 matches.

TEAM NEWS

FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman made no changes to his team for a third consecutive match, keeping the group that got a late goal for a 1-0 win against the LA Galaxy at FC Dallas Stadium.

Blas Perez scored for the third time in four matches since returning from international duty that forced him to miss the match vs. Real Salt Lake.

“Blas is in great form. He’s not only playing well for us, he’s playing extremely well for Panama trying to qualify for a historic first World Cup. So, he’s very focused, very motivated,” said Hyndman. “He trains extremely hard. He’s very competitive. I thought tonight he held the ball very well. He moved the ball. He made himself available for a lot of outlets, and again, dominating in the air. He won almost every head ball that really mattered.”

FC Dallas recorded their second consecutive shutout, and have not allowed a goal at home in 276 minutes, recording three straight clean sheets in Frisco.

“It’s communication between our goalkeeper and our defense improving every game. The coordination between the back four and the midfield is good,” said Hyndman. “A lot of things get broken up in the midfield by Andrew Jacobson and Michel before it gets to our defense. Kenny’s [Cooper] working hard. Jackson’s working hard. It’s a lot more difficult to break us down. I think Matt [Hedges] and George [John] had excellent games tonight, not only winning balls in the air, but winning balls on the ground.”

Said defender Jair Benitez: “Our defensive shape has been solid. We have been getting shutouts and not allowing our opponents a lot of chances. Plus, we have been able to help ourselves out a lot by finishing our chances offensively.”

FC Dallas scored a fourth goal this season from a set piece, tying them for the league lead this year with the Columbus Crew.

“We realize it’s one of our strengths. We’ve got a lot of size, but size doesn’t mean everything. We’ve got people who are very courageous, who will put their heads places where most human beings won’t when trying to attack a ball, and then we’ve got very good servers of the ball,” said Hyndman. “… They surprised us with quite a few of their lineup choices and I think that was to nullify our size in the air.”

With the victory, Hyndman became the winningest head coach in Dallas club history, taking over the team on June 16, 2008.

“As I said to the players, it’s not been an easy road. This is not the easiest profession," said Hyndman. "We put a lot into it, myself, my staff and the players. But nobody gets any awards in this environment without the players and this recognition goes all the way back to our first game that we got a point in."